Mr. Paradise

Latin rapper/singer/guitarist Mr. Paradise combines traditional flamenco music with street-tough hip-hop and bittersweet pop melodies to forge a unique sound that got him signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label. Born Angel Ariel Batista in 1991 in Villa Duarte, Dominican Republic and raised in Madrid, Spain from the age of two, he attended an international boarding school where the values of mutual tolerance and respect for diversity shaped him and helped form his sunny outlook on life. At the age of ten he moved with his mother to West New York, New Jersey, and at 14 formed a reggaeton group, 3men2, with three high school classmates. The group built up a loyal following among the local Dominican community, releasing a mixtape and several singles, and playing shows as far afield as the Calle 8 festival in Miami. Batista composed many of the group’s songs, and in his late teens taught himself classical guitar to add an extra dimension to his songwriting. In 2015 he went solo as Mr. Paradise, releasing the smooth, melancholy single “Forastero,” a meditation on the immigrant experience; the next year he followed it up with another, “Cirugía.” The singles caught the attention of Roc Nation, which made Mr. Paradise the first signing to their new Latin imprint. The label re-released “Forastero” early in 2017, and the resultant buzz led to it accruing more than a million streams. ~ John D. Buchanan